Photo: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City. Erected 1878.
I was in my early twenties. I do not recall the day or the year, only that I must have been somewhere between 22 and 24 years old, likely on the younger end of the age range. I was in my undergraduate years, studying history at CUNY Queens College, working afternoons and weekends with my father for his landscaping company while I took classes in the evening. When people would ask “what do you do?” and I would tell them that I…